TheMyriadOfShades/PC200
Contents
- 1 Myriad's Power Combat 200
- 1.1 Lesson 1: Counterattacks are excellent ways to wear down opponents who use their actions for defense. Lesson 2: When Exalted without persistent defenses fight, defense is costly and combat focuses on exhausting your opponent by forcing him to use defensive Charms while trying to not exhaust yourself quicker. Lesson 3: However, when Exalted without perfect defenses fight, it is possible to use offensive Charms to much greater effect.
- 1.2 Lesson 4: Being knocked prone sucks. You either stay there and suck up an annoying penalty to your actions, or you take an action standing in which your action is split and you're left vulnerable. If you have a reflexive full-pool defense, this is less bothersome, but if you rely on your action for defense, it essentially leaves you screwed.
- 1.3 After-Fight Thoughts
- 1.4 Comments
Myriad's Power Combat 200
Why the Wyld Hunt is Afraid
The combined 50 elite Realm troops and 200 mercenaries attending the adventuring Dragon-Blooded pair were met by 600 armed farmers near the small town in the prairie where the leader of the farmer's revolt resided, and so an agreement was reached. Sesus Inasus and Ledaal Ino, Terrestrial Exalted warriors trained at the House of Bells and out to restore peace to the satrapy by putting an end to the revolt, would duel with Olanna, the leader of the farmers, whom they suspected to be Anathema, on the fields outside her humble house.
The Dragon-Blooded, set out in impressive arrays of jade, found themselves faced with an athletic, very plain girl with a simply designed but extremely sturdy length of wood as tall as she was standing near a house at the base of a small cliff.
All three characters are starting characters. The Dragon-Blooded have nearly all of their abilities and bonus points and all of their Charms dedicated to combat, and a decent smattering of artifacts. Inasus is a very mobile Air Aspect who specializes in hurling knives, lightning, and even his daiklaive Wind Talon at people while remaining beyond hand-to-hand range. He's got a jade breastplate, and has 26 motes free. Ino is a close-combat-minded Fire Aspect with a Dire Lance, Hearthstone Bracers, and a jade Reinforced Buff Jacket, who also has a few group-buffers and has in fact used her Smoke-Obscuring Effect on Inasus to boost his effective Dodge to 8 for the rest of the scene. She has 26 motes free.
Olanna has 4 Melee Charms, an Ox-Body, and 4 non-combat related Charms. She has a staff and a breastplate she borrowed from someone. She's used Strength-Increasing Excercise to boost her Strength to 5. She has 36 motes free.
To realistically reflect their effect on essence and Willpower use, each combatant will make an attempt to consistently stunt.
Lesson 1: Counterattacks are excellent ways to wear down opponents who use their actions for defense. Lesson 2: When Exalted without persistent defenses fight, defense is costly and combat focuses on exhausting your opponent by forcing him to use defensive Charms while trying to not exhaust yourself quicker. Lesson 3: However, when Exalted without perfect defenses fight, it is possible to use offensive Charms to much greater effect.
Ledaal Ino dashed forward, spinning her massive spear Dante's Reach above her head before, mere yards from the farmgirl, the spearhead caught flame from the speed of the spinning just before Ino delivered a wide, slashing blow that seared the grass and earth five yards in every direction. A soft golden figure of a golden heroine of ages long pas guided Olanna's movements, and she deflected the blow with a strong quick movement from one end of her staff, before twisting and delivering a stinging counterstroke to the Dragon-Blooded's wrists with the other half. Shocked at the speed of the counterattack, Ino barely had time to work her spear into the path of the staff before she found herself forced to scramble and call on the magic of the Dragons to evade the first quick followup blow. Then the Solar switched her grip, and her staff came crashing down on the Terrestrial hero with unreal force, batting him into the ground.
Sesus Inasus raced up the side of the hill that formed the cliff overlooking Olanna's home, and held a knife up to the sky. Thunder struck, and the wind screamed, and the knife leapt into the air and for the Solar, who knocked it aside without looking at it, before circling back in the air to prepare for another strike.
Ino wins init, closes the distance, invokes her Twice-Flame Strike Combo (4 motes, 1 Willpower), getting a 2-dice stunt, splitting her action 3 ways and beginning by attacking once at 15 dice, scoring 7 successes. Olanna invokes her Fierce Maiden's Rebuke Combo (7 motes, 1 Willpower), gets a 1-die stunt, and makes a parry at 17 dice, scoring 7 successes, and a counterattack at 14 dice, scoring 13 (!) successes. Ino spends 2 motes to make a dodge attempt at 14 dice, scoring 7 successes, and then makes a parry, channeling her valor to get 10 dice, scoring 7 successes. Olanna recovers 2 motes for the successful stunt.
Olanna's initiative comes around, and she splits for 2 attacks, at 12 and 22 dice (spending a mote on the first attack and 8 motes and channeling Compassion [to save the farmers from retribution after her death] on the second), scoring 3 and 9 successes. Ino spends 4 motes to dodge both attacks at 4 dice, getting 3 successes and botching her second dodge, knocking herself prone and getting hit with a 9-success attack. Olanna rolls 8 bashing damage dice and rolls 3 successes, knocking Ino to a -1 wound penalty.
Inasus moves to the top of a nearby hill so his Thrown (From Higher Ground +2) comes into play, and then invokes his Hateful Wind Knife Combo (7 motes, 1 Willpower), getting a 1-die stunt and attacking with a throwing knife at 17 dice, scoring 8 succceses. Olanna spends 5 motes and parries it at 18 dice, scoring 8 successes.
Ino has 14 motes, 4 Willpower left, and is prone, down 3 health levels, at a -1 wound penalty. Inasus has 19 motes, 4 Willpower left. Olanna has 17 motes, 5 Willpower left.
Ino gets herself right into trouble-- unlike Olanna, she needs her actions to obtain defensive dice or else she is forced to use expensive magic to turn aside blows, and Olanna's lucky counterattack blew straight through those. She won't last if she's forced to spend lots of motes just to defend against Olanna's weaker attacks. Olanna started the fight out going on the offensive, since she realizes she needs to stop being outnumbered as quickly as possible-- she doubts she has the Essence reserves to both hold off Ino for an extended fight while deflecting the attacks of another Terrestrial at the same time.
Lesson 4: Being knocked prone sucks. You either stay there and suck up an annoying penalty to your actions, or you take an action standing in which your action is split and you're left vulnerable. If you have a reflexive full-pool defense, this is less bothersome, but if you rely on your action for defense, it essentially leaves you screwed.
fight
mechanics
commentary
FIN</I>
After-Fight Thoughts
text
Comments
What charms are contained in those combos, exactly? I'm not sure whether Olanna invoked Bulwark Stance, or what. - GregLink, thinking you're just not done yet...
Can you continue this combat Myriad? I happen to enjoy reading these and they do help me get a better handle on good combat description, and of course the rules and how they apply in multiple scenarios. . .
I'm not done yet, just being extremely lazy. I forget the others right now (I'll check my notes), but Olanna has Dipping Swallow Technique, Golden Essence Block, Solar Counterattack, and Excellent Strike in Fierce Maiden's Rebuke and another Combo that's the same thing sans Excellent Strike. -TheMyriadOfShades
